Historic Artifact Handbook

by

Jonathon C. Horn

Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc.

PO Box 2075

Montrose, CO 81402

March 2005

The intent of this handbook is to provide site recorders with little or no background in historic artifact identification sufficient information so that they can provide consistent descriptive information about the artifacts and site features they are observing. Good description of observed features and artifacts is essential for functional and chronological determinations to be made, thereby insuring that sites or site components are evaluated for significance using the proper thematic context. Regardless of whether or not an individual has the expertise to interpret the evidence present at a particular site, anyone carrying out site recordation has the obligation and should have the ability to provide good descriptive information.

A large portion of this handbook is composed of illustrations. For the most part, these are self-explanatory and little text will be written to accompany them. Many artifacts will not be described whatsoever. A list of references is also provided. The focus of the handbook will be on commonly found artifacts that are particularly useful in providing dating information. Historic artifacts from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries are particularly time sensitive, because of the rapid growth and change of technology. Using an assemblage of historic artifacts, it is not uncommon to be able to date a site to a 5 or 10-year time period. Functional interpretations can also be quite accurate using the artifacts alone. When coupled with well-directed historical research, the information that can be learned from a historic site can be very illuminating, not only from a historical perspective, but from anthropological, behavioral, technological, and socioeconomic viewpoints as well.

When classifying historic artifacts, the preferred method is by function. Classifying artifacts by material type makes functional interpretations very difficult and is inherently troublesome because many historic artifacts are composed of a variety of materials. A classificatory system for artifacts in museum collections was devised Robert G. Chenall (1978) and updated by Blackaby and Greeno (1988). This system is used by the National Park Service for their museum collections and works very well, especially when reference is made to Sprague (1981). Reuse of artifacts for purposes other than their original intention is very important data and should be recorded, but is problematic.

Vessel Glass

Vessel glass includes all glass containers such as food and household chemical bottles and jars, beverage bottles, and canning jars. It also includes glass service wares such as drinking glasses and dishes. Glass color is a very good indicator of a vessel's age.

White Milkglass ca. 1890s-present

Aqua ca. 1800-1920s

Green ca. 1860s-present

Amber or Brown ca. 1860s-present

Cobalt Blue ca. 1890s-present

Purple ca. 1885-1920

Yellowish ca. 1918-1920s

Purple glass is one of the best time markers to be found on archaeological sites. Use of manganese as a clearing agent in glass became very commonplace by 1885, perhaps beginning as early as 1880. Although the vessels started out clear in color, exposure to the sun resulted in a purple tint, varying in intensity depending on the amount of manganese used. The main source of manganese, Germany, was cut off as a result of World War I. Supplies on hand may have lasted into the very early 1920s, though in very limited quantities. Selenium replaced manganese as a clearing agent. It also changed color with exposure to the sun, this time to a yellowish hue, never getting dark enough to be confused with amber or brown glass.

Care must be taken when assigning a disposal date for a particular piece of glassware. Common food or household vessels were most usually disposed of immediately or soon after their contents had been used up. Canning jars and table service, especially fancy glassware, were used over and over again and were not discarded until unusable. Other glassware fragments, such as lamp chimneys or lantern globes, may be mistaken for short-lived vessels but in reality were used until broken.

Makers marks are very commonly found on the bases of food or household bottles and jars and the name or trademark of the product manufacturer is also frequently embossed on containers or lids. These marks and names should always be recorded as accurately as possible, even if fragmentary, because they can be looked up with relative ease, providing dates and other information. Here are four of the most common makers marks:

- Mark of the Illinois Glass Company of Alton, Illinois in use between 1916 and 1929 (Toulouse 1971:264-268).

- Mark of the Owens Bottle Company in use between 1911 and 1929 (Toulouse 1971:393).

– Mark of the Owens Illinois Glass Co. of Toledo, Ohio used upon the merger of the Owens Bottle Company and the Illinois Glass Company in 1929 and used until 1954 (Toulouse 1971:403-406). Associated with this mark will be numbers to the left, right, and bottom. The number to the left indicates the manufacturing plant. The number to the bottom is the mold number. The number to the right is the date number and can usually be added to 1930 to get the year of manufacture. Bottles from the early 1940s were marked with a single date digit to the right of the mark that may cause confusion with bottles manufactured in the early 1930s. Although some bottles from 1940 were simply marked with a 0, others were marked with a dot following the 0. This use of a dot to designate a 1940s age continued until a two digit date mark was instituted. Still, the single digit and dot designation may be found on bottles through 1946, though the two digit markings began in 1943. Further confirmation of a 1940s age is that stippling is commonly found on the base of these bottles, which is an indication that the glass is Duraglas, which began to be used in 1940 (Lockhart 2004, 2006). An exception to the dating formula was on very small medicine bottles where accompanying numbers were left off entirely or only a single date digit was used into the 1950s (Lockhart 2004, 2006).

- Mark of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. of Wheeling, West Virginia. This mark was in use from 1920 to 1964 (Toulouse 1971:239). According to the U.S. Patent Office, the trademark was registered in 1924.

Other marks also seem to have date numbers in association, particularly beer bottles beginning in the 1940s. These are not well documented, so assumptions of dates by numbers on bottle bases should be considered relative to other artifacts on a site. Plastic bottles may also have date numbers.

Vessel manufacturing attributes should be recorded as well. The attached dating key and illustrations provide the technical information necessary for providing this information.

Depression glass comes in a variety of colors and shapes. It was usually inexpensive dime-store dishware and was often given away in advertising promotions. Patterns can often be identified and frequently have restricted periods of production. On occasion, decorative glass table service or housewares came in purple. Consideration should be of the type of vessel and its use when purple glass is concerned as curated items or items considered for long use were sometimes manufactured of purple glass that, without close observation, can be confused with fragments of jar or bottles of an earlier age.

Ceramics

Ceramics found on archaeological sites in the West can generally be categorized into one of three basic types: stoneware, earthenware, and porcelain.

Stoneware is a clay ceramic frequently used for utilitarian vessels, such as crockery or sewer pipe. It is fired at a high enough temperature that the clay becomes vitrified somewhat, resulting in impermeability to liquids. It is frequently glazed. The fired clay has a rather porous appearance and is frequently tan to brown.

Earthenware is probably the most common type of ceramic found on historical archaeological sites. It is easily manufactured into a variety of shapes with fairly thin walls and is impermeable to liquids. The fired clay appears very fine in texture, ranges in color from white to yellowish, and sticks to the tongue to varying degrees depending on how vitrified the ceramic is from firing. Earthenwares are commonly glazed with a white or clear slip and are often well decorated. Decoration can range from blue-on-white oriental patterns to polychrome hand-painted, transfer-printed, or decal decoration, to relief-molded patterning with gilding, or any combination of the above. In general, the more refined the decoration, the more expensive the ware. This makes some economic scaling possible. Another generalization that should be considered is that decorated wares frequently indicate a family unit or at least the presence of a woman. Plain white earthenwares, often known as hotel ware, are frequently found at labor camps.

Porcelain is the most refined of the ceramics. It is generally very thin walled and highly vitreous. In cross section, porcelain looks very much like rough glass and will not stick to the tongue. It is almost always very fancy tableware and well decorated in the manner described above for earthenware. The expensiveness of porcelain is indicative of a certain level of affluence and, again, the likelihood of a woman's presence.

As with vessel glass, makers marks are very commonly found on the bases of earthenware and porcelain vessels and on the sides of stoneware vessels. These are either printed on or impressed into the vessel. Makers marks are very time diagnostic and occasionally can be dated to the month and year of manufacture. Because ceramic vessels were intended for long use, the date obtained from ceramics may indicate a slightly earlier date than is the actual case for a site. Ceramic dates should be considered as only one piece of information in the total artifact assemblage from a site when ascribing a date.

Cans

Cans come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. Changes in can manufacturing technology in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century make cans fairly good time indicators. The most commonly encountered cans are those which contained fresh foods. These can be broken down into three basic types: Hole-in-cap, hole-in-top, and sanitary (modern-style) cans.

Hole-in-cap cans are lead-sealed cans having a separate filler cap, soldered in place, with a pin hole vent covered with a spot of lead solder. These cans were manufactured at first entirely by hand and later by machine. The ends of the cans have flat lips that fit around the outside of the can sides. The connection is not interlocked in any way. One end of the can has a filler hole large enough for the contents of the can to enter. The filler hole was covered by a sheet metal disc soldered in place forming a characteristic ring of lead. The filler cap has a pin hole which allowed steam to escape during processing. Once processing was completed, the pin hole was sealed with a spot of lead solder. The side seam of the cans was also covered with a line of solder. In general, cans from the early 1880s and before tend to have heavier amounts of solder on their side seams, less neatly applied, than later cans. Side seams began to be soldered by machine in the 1880s, resulting in more uniform and regular solder seams. Aberrations may be observed on hole-in-cap cans that may be noteworthy. On occasion, cans may be found that have the sides fitted around the ends. More frequently, cans with two vent holes and two lead spots on the filler caps may be observed.

Hole-in-cap cans were in production by the 1820s. A stamping machine for the manufacture of can ends was patented in 1847. Can ends began being soldered by machine in the mid-1870s and a machine for soldering side seams was introduced in 1883. Rectangular hole-in-cap cans for canned corned beef were introduced in 1875 (Rock 1984:102-103). Inventions for crimping the seams of cans, eliminating the need for solder, leading to the development of "sanitary" cans, began in 1888, but sanitary cans as we know them did not come onto the market until 1904. By 1911, sanitary cans had dominated the can market (Rock 1984:105-106). In general, hole-in-cap cans on a site indicate a date of occupation prior to 1914 and an absence of sanitary cans suggests a pre-1904 date. One exception should be noted. Large hole-in-cap bulk food cans provided by the U.S. government to Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and possibly for military use, have been noted dating to the 1930s.

Hole-in-top cans closely resemble hole-in-cap cans but do not have filler holes. The tops of these cans may be stamped with ridges that mimic filler holes, but lack the solder ring. They do have a pin hole vent sealed with a spot of lead. Hole-in-top cans were introduced in 1900 by Carnation for evaporated milk (Rock 1984:104). These cans were still in use until the early 1990s. Prior to the introduction of hole-in-top cans (by 1885), evaporated milk was canned in hole-in-cap cans.

Sanitary cans are the cans in use today. These were the result of innovations in seam crimping machinery. In 1897, machinery was developed that could crimp the can ends to the sides with a double seam sealed with a rubber compound. By 1904, sanitary cans were in full production, completely dominating the market by 1911.

Other Can Innovations of Note

During the late 1890s and early 1900s, many new innovations were attempted to modernize food cans. These innovations appear as cans with unusual attributes. For instance, some lead-sealed cans have been observed with crimped ends similar to sanitary cans with lead spots over vent holes similar to hole-in-top cans. Some hole-in-cap cans have been observed with lead spots over two vent holes through the filler caps.